Monday, June 10, 2013

I'm Baffled by This

So again, almost every big corporation you deal with is collecting data about you. A lot of data. And yet almost every one of those companies is absolutely terrible about figuring out what to do with any of that information.

That shouldn’t mean that all of this data-collection isn’t still disturbing. We’re making a precarious bargain with all of these companies, accepting “special coupons” or cool new wireless or Internet features in exchange for providing them with massive amounts of information about our interests, expenses, patterns and relationships. But to some extent we’ve all been lulled into not worrying that they will abuse this access to our information simply because they’ve been so incompetent at using any of it.

I was briefly impressed that YouTube played a Nick Cave commercial when I was cuing up Swan Lake for the girls, until I remembered that I'd watched the video for the first single of the album a few weeks before. Even that meager level of sophistication is enough to notice.

On the other hand, I walked into Ebisu to get some ramen a few months ago, and, unfortunately, it was completely empty. As I was waiting for my takeout, I noticed that "Angelfuck" by the Misfits was playing. This seemed like a strange choice for a Japanese restaurant at 5:00, and I assume it was a Pandora artifact or something, but it also felt like the future. I mean, if you ID'd my phone and scanned my digital dossier and thought "What song might make Tom just decide to sit down at the bar by himself and order a sake before driving home?" That tune would be a good choice.

Full disclosure: I did not get the sake.

Also, David Warlick's performance in the Nick Cave video is damned impressive.